The Odessa File (1974)

The Odessa File is a 1974 thriller film, adapted from the 1972 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth, about a reporter's investigation into the ODESSA: an organisation set up to protect former members of the SS in post-Second World War West Germany. The film stars Jon Voight, Mary Tamm, Maximilian Schell and Maria Schell and was directed by Ronald Neame, with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was the only film that the Schell siblings made together.

Plot

On 22 November 1963, Peter Miller, a young freelance reporter in Hamburg, West Germany, pulls his car over to the curb to listen to a radio report on the John F. Kennedy assassination in Dallas. As a result, he happens to be stopped at a traffic signal as an ambulance passes by on a highway.

He follows the ambulance and discovers it is en route to pick up the body of an elderly man who has committed suicide, leaving behind no family. Peter obtains the man's diary and learns the man was Salomon Tauber, a Jewish Holocaust survivor. Salomon's diary details information on his life in the Riga Ghetto during World War II (including the name of the SS officer who ran the camp, Eduard Roschmann). Salomon's diary catalogues all of Roschmann's crimes, including the murder of a highly decorated Wehrmacht officer while attempting to flee at the end of the war.

Peter is filled with a determination to hunt Roschmann down, and he sets out to meet famed Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who informs him about ODESSA, a secret organization for former members of the SS which is developing a missile guidance system for Nasserist Egypt. Wiesenthal explains that most of the Hamburg Police are members of ODESSA and not to be trusted. As Peter leaves, he is accosted by Israeli Mossad agents who suspect Peter of trying to harm Wiesenthal. Peter manages to convince the men that his true mission is to find and bring Roschmann to justice. The Israelis propose to send Peter deep undercover into the ODESSA. Peter agrees to the mission, and with the help of the Israelis, is provided with a cover identity. Peter is to be a former SS soldier who died recently in a nearby hospital. He does not inform his girlfriend Sigi, who was attacked in an attempt to get the whereabouts of Peter.

The Israelis drill Peter on all details of his cover identity in preparation of meeting with ODESSA. Complete with a new cover identity, Peter gains access to the inner ranks of the ODESSA. After getting through his first test, he is sent to get a fake passport from a forger who is working for ODESSA. While awaiting his train, Peter blunders by making a call to Sigi to assure her that he is OK. Thinking he is safe, he boards the train. Meanwhile, the ODESSA report back that Peter has made a call, and they work out that Peter is not who he says he is. An assassin is dispatched to kill him. Peter meets with the forger Klaus Wenzer, a shy, insecure young man living with his mother. Klaus tells Peter to return after the weekend to take passport photos but then calls him after midnight and tells him to return within the hour.

Suspicious, Peter rings Klaus' home from his hotel and, having had no answer, is wary and sees the armed assassin who is waiting for him. Peter sneaks into the house and awakes Klaus' mother: she mistakes him for a priest and begs him to pray for her son. He then tackles the assassin and manages to kill the man. Whilst exploring Klaus' safe, he uncovers a book, the ODESSA file, detailing every fake ID Klaus created and divulging the real identity of those he created the fake IDs for. Peter takes the file and hides it in a railway station locker, later giving the key to Sigi, in case anything should happen to him.

Peter, victorious, returns to the Israelis and details all he has found but refuses to disclose the location of the file until Roschmann has been apprehended. The Israeli agents reluctantly agree to Peter's demands, and he then leaves for Roschmann's home, where he finds him living an opulent life as a munitions factory owner using an alias. Peter manages to gain access to the mansion and evade his security before confronting Roschmann at gunpoint. Peter reveals Salomon Tauber's diary to Roschmann, who attempts to deny everything, claiming Peter has been misled. Peter then discloses to Roschmann Salomon's description of the murder of a fellow German Wehrmacht officer at the end of the war. Peter goes through the unique details of the cowardly murder and then discloses that the Wehrmacht officer was in fact Peter's father. Roschmann, realising he is about to be exposed, panics and goes for his gun, forcing Peter to defend himself. Peter returns fire at Roschmann, killing the former SS officer who had killed his father.

The detailed ODESSA files obtained by Peter are used to arrest numerous Nazi war criminals, including high-ranking members of the police. Later, Roschmann's factory mysteriously burns to the ground before any rockets are delivered to Egypt.

Cast

Jon Voight as Peter Miller

Mary Tamm as Sigi

Maximilian Schell as Eduard Roschmann

Maria Schell as Frau Miller

Derek Jacobi as Klaus Wenzer

Peter Jeffrey as David Porath

Towje Kleiner as Saloman Tauber

Klaus Löwitsch as Gustav Mackensen

Miriam Mahler as Esther Tauber (uncredited)

Kurt Meisel as Alfred Oster

Hannes Messemer as General Glücks

Garfield Morgan as Israeli General

Shmuel Rodensky as Simon Wiesenthal

Ernst Schröder as Werner Deilman

Günter Strack as Kunik

Noel Willman as Franz Bayer

Günter Meisner as General Greifer

Gunnar Möller as Karl Braun

Til Kiwe as Medal Shop Proprietor

Joachim Dietmar Mues as Wehrmacht Captain

Cyril Shaps as Tauber's Voice (narrating the diary)

Oskar Werner as an Wehrmacht Officer (uncredited)

Production

Producer John Woolf had just made a successful film from another novel by Forsyth, The Day of the Jackal.

Filming was done on location in Hamburg, Heidelberg, and Munich, West Germany and Salzburg, Austria; at Pinewood Studios, England; and the Bavaria Studios in Grünwald, Bavaria, West Germany. It was filmed with Panavision equipment, produced with Eastmancolor technologies.

The film's title song, "Christmas Dream", written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, was sung by Perry Como and the London Boy Singers, and heard as diegetic music over a car radio during the main titles of the film.

Simon Wiesenthal served as a technical advisor for the production.

Reception

The film premiered at the 1974 San Francisco International Film Festival. The American Nazi Party staged a protest outside the theater but it was mistaken for a promotion of the film.

The film has an aggregated score of 69% from 16 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Nora Sayre of the New York Times said, "The film makes its points methodically, almost academically. It also drags because there are many unnecessary transitional passages, devoted to moving the characters from one situation to another. Almost every occurrence is predictable."

Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote that The Odessa File was a 'seriously inane thriller' but did praise Jon Voight's German accent.

References

External links

The Odessa File at IMDb

The Odessa File at the TCM Movie Database (archived)

The Odessa File at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

The Odessa File at Rotten Tomatoes

The Odessa File in libraries (WorldCat catalog)